Character Guest Post
I’ve always loved Christmas but running a bookstore during Christmas is no easy task. Yet, I’m so grateful that we are busy during this season and not all of Beach Reads customers are going to online retailers. I think a lot of folks enjoy the atmosphere at the store. From the overstuffed chairs to the author autographs on ceilings and floors, to the mermaid art everywhere and the fresh coffee scent when you walk in the door, I’d say we’ve got plenty of ambience for book shoppers.
To top it all of this is the first Christmas without my mom, whose presence loomed large on this island, in the bookstore, and in my heart. It’s going to be a rough Christmas without her. I’ve decided to stay as busy as possible to keep my mind off her loss. But it’s not easy.
Thank goodness the Mermaid Pie Book club has stepped in to plan the Have a Cozy Mystery book event. Three authors on a panel, held at the library. Beach Reads will be there selling books, of course. But the planning of it was just a bit much for me, with everything else I’ve got going on.
As I understand it, one of the writers has written a book based loosely on a local cold case. I’m not much one for murder mysteries these days, but I might have to read that one.About Once Upon a Seaside Murder
As the holidays approach, bookstore owner Summer Merriwether learns a dark secret in this second volume of Maggie Blackburn's Beach Reads mystery series.
There's no place like home for the holidays, even if home is sleepy, beachside Brigid's Island, NC. During this season for giving, the town wakes up to a welcome throng of shoppers--and Beach Reads is no exception. But bookseller Summer Merriwether's Christmas cheer turns to cringing fear when she uncovers a deadly secret about her late mother--a secret someone will kill to keep.
When the local library hosts a cozy mystery panel discussion, Summer learns that one of the authors on the panel based her book on an actual murder that shook Brigid's Island thirty-five years before. Worse, she soon learns that her dearly missed mother, Hildy, took a disturbingly deep interest in the case, going so far as to collect clippings and keep a journal of the dark doings. This doesn't jibe with Summer's memories of her usually cheery mother at all.Tidings get worse when Summer learns of her long-lost biological family's involvement in the crime...and still worse when the life of the book's author is threatened. With the help of Hildy's plucky book club, Summer puts her scholarly smarts to work on protecting the cozy author and solving the decades-old murder.
But this ghost from Christmas past may still be deadly in the present, and if she can't find the killer, Summer's future will be brief.
About Maggie Blackburn
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